


And now, we're a petal apart.

by Karratran



Series: It's in the air. [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, For Sakurathon!, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3819118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karratran/pseuds/Karratran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin comes back from Australia for a couple of weeks and he freeloads on Haru. Of course, Haru is only happy to obligue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And now, we're a petal apart.

Rin was coming back.

For only a couple of weeks, but he was coming back.

Haruka’s stomach did a somersault and his heart hammered against his ribcage. He might even be having difficulty breathing, yet his face betrayed nothing. To any outsider, he must probably seem to be bored. Not a single soul was privy to the turmoil within him.

Had it really been a year since they graduated, a year since the cherry blossom pool party at Samezuka? Had it really been _that_ long?

The knot in Haruka’s throat tightened.

Sure, he and Rin had kept in touch, having Skype and Line calls whenever their schedules matched, or messages that went unanswered for hours—or days—at times.

But now, the distance that separated them was just some more minutes, an airplane, and a tight-packed airport. They would no longer yearn for the other’s warmth, because they would actually get to feel it. They would be within each other’s reach.

Haruka’s hands felt uncomfortably moist.

That was probably the most unexpected and out of character thing Haruka would ever get to think, but feeling the water and feeling the sweat in his hands was not the same thing.

The voice in the speakers announced Rin’s flight arrival.

And the trembling of his hands became more pronounced.

People started to crowd the corridor from the gate terminal, there were so many foreigners and even more Japanese. For a moment, Haruka thought he’d miss Rin, and that he’d stand there waiting until there were no more people disembarking and his friend would not come out.

But then his doubts vanished when the very hard to miss mop of silky, wine colored hair came into view.

Rin was home.

Haruka’s heart broke into a sprint. His mind, however, came to a screeching halt.

 _Rin_.

It was nearly unbearable to just stand there, waiting for Rin to see him. But when their eyes connected and Rin’s eyes light up, it was all worth it.

“Haru!”

Ah, it really was on a completely different level to get to hear Rin’s voice live, and not through calls.

The bear hug Rin enveloped Haruka into, knocked the air right out of his lungs. “R-Rin!”

“Damn, it’s been too long…”

Even though his voice was muffled by Haruka’s jacket, the emotions that were crossing Rin’s mind were as obvious as rain being wet.

“Rin, don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying!” Except he was, Haruka’s tear-stained jacket and Rin’s shiny, red rimmed eyes were more than enough proof. Oh, and that sniff, too. Rin had grabbed Haruka by the shoulders and now had him at arm’s length. But now he had nowhere to hide his flustered face. And so, he groaned. “Guh, let’s just get out of here, yeah?”

Haruka snorted lightly and followed Rin out of the airport.

The entire way to Haruka’s apartment was filled with comfortable chatter from Rin—who was fighting to stay awake since jetlag was catching up on him—and easy silence from Haruka.

“Take a shower, I will prepare the futon for you,” Haruka told Rin when they were inside the small but cozy apartment, because he had noticed the redhead was really at his limit, so it would be really convenient for him to have somewhere to crash ready. Rin seemed to be very grateful.

“You’re a lifesaver, you know that?” He chuckled and closed the bathroom’s door behind him.

_I could say the same about you, Rin._

Rin’s head had only touched the pillow, and he had been fast asleep. Haruka smiled affectionately.

He had been tempted to brush off those ever-present stray bangs from Rin’s face when he pulled the blanket on top of him, but restrained, because he didn’t want to disturb his long-awaited slumber, and laid on his own futon.

Surprisingly, he fell asleep just as fast. As if Rin’s presence soothed him.

It sure was nice having him home.

 

“Haru,” Rin’s voice roused him. “Oi, Haru, don’t you have to go to practice or something?”

Haruka turned away from Rin’s nudging hands. “Ngh.”

“The alarm is driving me nuts, at least turn it off, damn it!”

A sigh and a smack later, Haruka fumed while turning it off. “You could have done it yourself, you know?” He said groggily.

“Whatever.”

His eyebrow twitched. “Idiot.”

After that, a comfortable silence fell upon them. Haruka couldn’t fall asleep again, even though his eyes were fighting to remain closed.

“…Haru?”

“Hm?”

“You’re seriously not going to go to practice?”

“Free day.”

“Ah.”

“…”

“…”

“…What?”

“Nothin’. Just… wondering. It’s cherry blossom season, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah.”

“I… kind of want to go see…”

Haruka smiled at his warming chest. “You never change, do you?”

“OI!”

“Heh, alright. But it’s still too early.”

“I- I know! I was just saying I wanted to go, I never said I wanted to go right now, you jerk!”

“I never said you had.”

Rin whined in defeat. “You’re so unfair, you know.”

“Not more than you.”

“Bah!”

 

Rin’s face had been priceless. It kind of reminded him of himself, cherry blossoms were to Rin what water was to Haruka. Sort of.

“Hey, Haru, check this out!” Rin pointed to the pond, fully covered with cherry blossom petals. “Now _this_ is- …uh. Ugh.”

It was hilarious how all the excitement left Rin’s face the moment he realized what he was about to say, and composed himself.

“Romantic, right?” Haruka finished for him.

Rin faltered and promptly looked away, color creeping to his cheeks.

“Y-yeah.”

Haruka took his hand. “Yeah, it is.”

It was nearly impossible to hear all the things Rin grumbled, but Haruka caught some parts. He was embarrassed, he was annoyed with himself, but mostly, he was cursing the world, because _since when Nanase Haruka had become SO GODDAMNED SMOOTH_.

Haruka chuckled and then laughed quietly.

He was sure Rin was looking at him weirdly. But he didn’t care.

“…What now, Haru.”

The question was probably intended to come out with some venom, because Haruka had been laughing at Rin’s reaction, but—and this Haruka knew—Rin had a thing for Haruka’s laughter. It was so rare, it left Rin dumbstruck.

“You.”

“…Huh?”

 

The rest of their day went by in a blur. When they went to find some lunch, Rin argued with Haruka for some steak. When they went to buy groceries, Rin managed to talk Haruka out of buying his usual amount of mackerel, and buy some meat since they were going to be sharing living quarters for a couple of weeks, and he sure as hell didn’t want to eat fish every day.

When they got back, Rin concluded that if he was going to freeload on Haruka, that he might as well help out, by putting the groceries away and cleaning up a bit—not that it wasn’t clean, Haruka didn’t like living in the mess.

And so, Haruka claimed the bath first. He also took his time, and could have probably fallen asleep in there, had Rin not knocked on the door to usher Haruka out.

“I made some dinner, so get out. And I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but if you keep this shit up, you’ll become some fish, and I’m not gonna let that happen, you got that?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

After eating dinner, Rin went into the bathroom while Haruka laid out the futons.

Haruka was starting to doze off when Rin came out of the bathroom. He heard him move around the room and then settle on the futon. The rustling of fabric proved to be quite distracting, keeping him from dozing off. But then Rin finally stopped moving and Haruka started to fall back asleep.

“Haru?” Rin whispered.

Oh, no. Rin was not going to keep him awake. Not tonight, not when he felt so tired. So Haruka pretended to be asleep.

“Haruuu!” He insisted still in a hushed tone.

“What.” Haruka deadpanned in his usual tone.

“Damn it, you were awake, weren’t you!”

“I want to sleep, so what?”

The redhead sulked a little more.

“What is it, Rin.”

“Man, I didn’t remember you being this cranky before.”

“ _Rin_.”

“ _Fine_. It’s just that… um, isn’t it cold?”

 _…What?_ “Huh?”

“I’m… it’s just that right now it’s the middle of the summer in Australia and I kind of got used to it, so now the chill from here is… kind of getting to me.”

 _So that was it, huh._ “Rin, just say it straight out. You want to share the futon with me.”

“…Geh.”

“ _You want to cuddle_ , don’t you?”

“Urgh!”

Haruka snorted and lifted the blanket, “Fine, come over.”

A poorly hid smirk became pretty evident as Rin settled into Haruka’s futon. “Thank you, Haru. If it wasn’t for you, I’d freeze to death.”

“You survived quite well last night.”

“I- I was nearly unconscious, so it doesn’t count.”

“Heh, sure. Now shut up.”

“Make me.”

“I’m sure you’re tired too, so shut up and sleep.”

Rin stuck out his tongue, “No fun.”

“Likewise.”

“Oi!”

“Rin, shut up and sleep. You’re here now, so _sleep_.”

The redhead huffed, and pressed his head to the pillow.

“…You use cherry blossom scented shampoo?”

“Shut up.”

 

Haruka woke up toasty warm. It was nice.

And it was nicer that the source of the heat was Rin’s body pressed against his, in a tangle of limbs.

He had been aware that he had developed these feelings for Rin since way back. However, he didn’t acknowledge them until very recently.

At first he had been quite confused, not really understanding why was he feeling all that, but then he realized that no matter how hard he thought of it, it’d never make complete sense. And so, he embraced those feelings and let them flow. They filled his heart and a warm glow spread through him.

The only downside was that he didn’t know Rin’s feelings.

But Rin never rejected him. He only took him in. It was slightly disconcerting, but Haruka decided that it didn’t matter, that as long as he got to spend time with Rin, that as long as they lived in the same world, as long as they shared the same experiences, it was enough for him. He decided that he’d let things flow.

Because everything about Rin and him, was water. And so, letting it flow was the only reasonable choice.

Haru pressed his face into Rin’s hair and took a long whiff. He smiled as warmly as his chest felt.

“Never change, Rin,” He muttered as quietly as he could.

And then, he kept breathing in the scent of cherry blossoms until he fell back asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks a ton to Liana for helping me with the beta!! <3
> 
> I think that if I had had more time to write this (mind you, I only did this in a day because I procrastinate this much), I probably could have fitted the whole thing in only one chapter, but I kind of gave up in desperation and wrote until this. But then, Hina told me that I could do a sequel, and well... I really want to do that now.  
> PS: expect a rating upgrade on the next part! >;D
> 
> EDIT: I kind of fucked up my brain and it's been a painful silent asshole for a while now, so I really don't know when I'll be able to write again...  
> I do try to get back on track, but every time I try it's just... silence. My brain hasn't talked to me in a while and it's awful and I really wanna pour bleach on it in hopes of bringing it back to life. I hope it happens sometime soon bc there's so much I have to do.


End file.
